Pupils from the Dominicus College in Nijmegen win the 'CERN beamline for schools' competition
At the end of last week it was announced that a team of pupils from the Dominicus College in Nijmegen were the winners of the 'CERN beamline for schools'. From the nearly 300 entries submitted by schools throughout the world, their team was selected together with a team from Greece to carry out their own experiment at CERN. The Nijmegen pupils will construct and test a calorimeter there, partly under the supervision of Charles Timmermans, a researcher at FOM Institute Nikhef and Radboud University Nijmegen.
CERN 60 years
The competition was organised in the year of CERN's 60th anniversary. A complete setup at a particle beam will be made available to the winning high school teams so that they can carry out an experiment there just like CERN scientists do.
Motivation
In a proposal of less than 1.000 words, the teams had to explain why they wanted to come to CERN, what they hoped to learn, and what their initial ideas were for using a particle beam for their experiment. The team from Nijmegen submitted a proposal to allow crystals to grow to make a calorimeter and to test this in a particle beam. A calorimeter is an instrument that can measure the energy of individual particles. In their proposal 'Crystal calorimeter' they wrote: "With our experiment we hope that other pupils just like us will become interested in the wonderful world of physics. We want to show pupils that physics is interesting, challenging and fun. We want to show that physics is accessible to everybody: everybody can devise and carry out an experiment. In a nutshell we want our unique calorimeter to be a source of inspiration to other pupils!"
Down to work
"It is always surprising to see what happens if pupils become involved in real research," says CERN's head of communication James Gillies. "I can hardly wait to see what the winning teams will achieve." Scientists from CERN are now discussing the physical and technical details with the teams to prepare for the experiments, which will be carried out in September of this year.
Further information
For further information please see the website of FOM Institute Nikhef.
More about the CERN Beam line for schools competition.